A New Day

'This is unforgivable!'

'Why would those two become work partners!? Unbelievable!'

It was Monday morning. Returning to school, Alicia recalled once again what happened last Friday that had drawn everyone's attention to Yina.

While she was paired with a random person, Jonathan was paired with Yina.

She held back from showing her frustration as she remembered. As the class president, she always arrived at school early.

After almost a month since classes resumed, the cleaning responsibilities for the classroom were grouped in pairs. The first group would clean on Monday, the second group on Tuesday, and so on.

As class president, Alicia had to check that the cleaners attended and did their work.

After a while, the cleaners arrived before the others. Alicia noted this. Then, an unexpected person walked in.

He was tall, and his arm was wrapped in a sling hanging from his neck. The other arm also had many bandages.

This person was obviously Nick. He nervously looked around, drawing some attention. He still remembered his brother's words: 'You have to take responsibility.'

Many were curious about what happened to him, but since they weren't close, they didn't have the chance to ask.

'Surely, Professor Gerardo will ask about it.' That was the thought of many present.

While they cleaned and prepared the classroom for the rest of the day, Nick was sweating, seemingly scared of something in particular. Looking at his face, it also seemed like he hadn't slept enough.

Soon, the students entered and looked at him with puzzled eyes.

Alicia was curious, but frankly, she didn't care much about what happened to Nick.

When the cleaners finished, there were only a few minutes before classes started. At that moment, Yina arrived, who recently had more interactions with her classmates thanks to her partnership with Jonathan.

But before entering the classroom, she noticed some strange thoughts.

'What happened to him?'

'Did he get into a gang fight?'

'Should I ask him?'

'Is it about Jonathan? Did something happen to him?' Yina frowned, and when she opened the classroom door, she saw that Jonathan's seat was still empty.

She sighed with relief, knowing that it wasn't about her friend.

'It seemed like they weren't talking about him.' Yina walked to her seat and sat down.

Then she realized there was a tall person in front of her.

'Wait, who sits in front of me again?' She thought until she realized and tensed up. 'The bully, Nick! He's back!?'

Observing him closely, Yina saw that he had many bandages, which confirmed that he was evidently Jonathan's victim.

'Oh no, is he going to tell everyone? What will happen if he does?'

Although she still appeared calm on the outside, Yina was not calm inside. At the same time, Jonathan entered the classroom.

'Oh, he actually dared to come back.' Jonathan thought as he headed to his seat.

'Is that all? Just a look? React at least a little; don't leave me nervous alone!'

Meanwhile, when Nick noticed Jonathan was there, trembling, he thought, 'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! I'm so damn scared!'

That was the first time Yina heard Nick's thoughts again. Somehow, she nodded, understanding that fear, as he had suffered a legendary beating.

'I get it. Even I was scared of him for a while.' Out of curiosity and concern for her friend, Yina continued to listen to Nick's thoughts.

'Should I do it? Crap! I'm trembling; the wounds still hurt! But I have to do it for my brother and the gang!'

Yina frowned. 'Gang? Didn't Detective Anderson think the same thing?'

The worst-case scenario was already unfolding before her eyes.

He wants revenge and will try to kill Jonathan!

Nick clenched his face and thought, 'I have to do this! Here I go!'

Yina clenched her fists and thought, 'I have to stop him!'

She also stood up.

Meanwhile, Jonathan was thinking about whether making peace with Nick would be a good idea, his life being the gift of his apology.

And, of course, Jonathan also stood up.

In a single moment, three gazes crossed.

'What's happening?' That was the general thought of the class.

It was Yina who stood in front of Jonathan, her gaze showing anger as she shouted, "Stay away from him."

Not only Jonathan and Nick, but the whole class, wondered what was happening.

Nick trembled at this and thought, 'What's going on? Who is she talking to? Is she protecting me? No, she's looking at me. No way! Does she think I'm going to do something to Jonathan? Even if I do, why is she defending him? Didn't she see how that psycho nearly killed me?'

Yina, who read his thoughts, thought, 'Wait, he's not going to do anything? Then, what are his intentions?'

'Is she protecting Nick from me? I guess she's afraid I might do something to upset him again.' Jonathan was drawing his own conclusions.

"Yina, I'm not going to do anything." Jonathan whispered to her, making sure others wouldn't hear, his actions seeming normal, but to everyone else, it could be considered something very close.

Yina shivered at his breath.

'Does Jonathan not know anything about personal space!?'

"Jonathan, I'm not talking to you."

"Huh?" Jonathan didn't expect that.

The atmosphere grew tense as the whole class focused on them, puzzled since this situation was very strange.

"Eh…" Nick frowned at this and didn't take his eyes off Yina, as if he couldn't believe she was protecting Jonathan.

'Why would she protect him? No, what if he's threatening her!?

Yina got even more annoyed and thought, 'Does this idiot want to get beaten up again?'

"What do you want?" Yina's gaze returned to normal.

Nick swallowed hard.

'I can't just say I need to apologize to Jonathan!'

At that moment, Yina finally understood what he was doing. Although she didn't know why Nick would return to class after what happened to him, there was no doubt he was here to apologize.

"I just want to talk to Jonathan about something." Nick said it with difficulty.

"I also want to talk to him." Jonathan wanted to clear up all the misunderstandings.

Nick: 'What? What does he want? Why does he want to talk to me!? Damn it, I can't believe I'm trembling just from those words!'